Former deputy faces sex charges

Grand jury adds newest counts

July 12, 2001|By Janan Hanna, Tribune staff reporter.

A former Cook County sheriff's deputy assigned to Traffic Court was formally charged Wednesday with multiple counts of sex crimes, kidnapping and armed violence for allegedly threatening two women with arrest if they refused to have sex with him.

Neil Ferdinand, 32, who was fired from the Cook County sheriff's office after his arrest last month, pleaded not guilty to the charges during a brief hearing before Judge Kenneth Wadas in the Criminal Courts Building.

Ferdinand, who is free on $50,000 bond, was charged June 19 with official misconduct after he allegedly forced a woman to have sex with him in the early morning hours of June 18 near North and Artesian Avenues, prosecutors said. After the first victim called 911, police arrested Ferdinand in the same vicinity as, they said, he was attempting to coerce a second victim to have sex with him.

At his bond hearing last month, a prosecutor said Ferdinand, with his badge in plain view and a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun in his holster, used his car to block the path of the first victim, who was walking.

After telling her she was under arrest, he allegedly forced her into his car and drove her to an alley where he sexually assaulted her, the prosecutor said.

She called the police immediately after the 4 a.m. incident, the prosecutor said.

When police arrived, they found Ferdinand in his car with the second victim, the prosecutor said.

Ferdinand was employed as a court services deputy in Traffic Court for six months prior to his arrest, officials said.

Because he was on the job for less than a year and was still on probation, Ferdinand was not entitled to challenge his firing before a hearing board, a spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan said.

During the bond hearing, Ferdinand's lawyer said his client vehemently denied the charges.

Ferdinand, who has been married for eight years, is a lifelong resident of Cook County who served in the armed forces during Operation Desert Storm, his lawyer said.

After taking Ferdinand's plea, Judge Wadas noted that he had a son who worked as a deputy sheriff and ordered that the case be assigned to another judge to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.